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Donald's English Classroom

English Day – 4/23

04/21/2021 by admin

In 2010, the United Nations introduced an initiative dedicating one day to each of its six official languages: French (3/20), Chinese (4/20), Spanish and English (4/23), Russian (6/6), and Arabic (12/18). The language days recognize the importance of global communication through multilingualism and cultural diversity. The UN first celebrated English Language Day on April 23, 2010.

English, one of the two working languages of the UN Secretariat, is often referred to as a “world language”, or the lingua franca of the modern era because it is so widely spoken. The U.N. also celebrates International Mother Language Day on February 21 and International Translation Day on September 30.

English Language Day aims to entertain and inform people about the history, culture, and achievements associated with the language. The U.N. selected April 23 for English Language Day to commemorate the celebrated playwright and poet, William Shakespeare (1564-1616), whose (speculated) birthdate and death are recorded on the same date. The day often features book-reading events, English quizzes, poetry and literature exchanges, and other activities that promote the English language.

If you’re looking for some activities to celebrate English Day, the British Council offers an English Day lesson plan for teenagers and adults for online or in-classroom lessons.

The British Council will also be holding a special live stream for teachers on Facebook Live on 4/23.

To learn more about the United Nations’ English Day commemoration and language courses, click here!

Best of luck in your classes and Happy English Language Day!

Donald Kinney
Kinney Brothers Publishing

Filed Under: Kinney Brothers Publishing Tagged With: Donald's English Classroom, English Language Day, English language learners, esl, kinney brothers publishing

Easy Sight Words – A Closer Look

01/27/2021 by admin

Whether you call them sight words, popcorn words, or high-frequency words, they are, by definition, “commonly used words that young children are encouraged to memorize as a whole or by ‘sight,’ so that they can automatically recognize these words in print without having to use any strategies to decode.”

In addition, high frequency words can be abstract, difficult if not impossible to represent using pictures, and especially difficult to understand where meaning may have an inferred understanding through context (something a second language learner doesn’t have the advantage of in early language development.)  It can be very elusive to create a clear mental model of words like have and get, both of which can cross several different word choices in a language learner’s native language.

This is why students of English need to be exposed to the patterns of speech and inferred meaning of sight words early on in oral and writing exercises.  Inevitably, as you move children from decoding individual words to decoding language in connected text, sight words should be a regular part of your ESL program.

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  • Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon)
  • Donald’s English Classroom (pdf download)
  • Donald’s English Classroom support materials
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  • Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon)
  • Donald’s English Classroom (pdf download)
  • Donald’s English Classroom support materials

As your emergent readers display rudimentary reading ability and become capable of decoding and deriving meaning from connected text, including sight-word practice is imperative. The habits that you build into the children’s learning activities will help them to acquire new words more quickly, build on their knowledge base to infer meaning, and progress more confidently in their studies.

Filed Under: Kinney Brothers Publishing Tagged With: Donald's English Classroom, ESL Activities, ESL Flashcards, ESL Games, esl textbooks, ESL Worksheets, kids writing practice, kinney brothers publishing, popcorn words, sight words

Phonics Series – A Closer Look

01/17/2021 by admin

Kinney Brothers Publishing Phonics Series

A solid phonics program is the cornerstone of many pre-K through elementary classes. Focused phonics lessons and phonemic awareness improve pronunciation, listening comprehension, and give students the confidence to read and understand English. The Kinney Brothers Publishing five-book Phonics & Spelling Series is designed to teach kids the fundamental sounds and spelling of English in a multi-year, step-by-step ESL program.

The Phonics & Spelling Series series is also published by Independent Publishers International (I.P.I.) in Japan and available with a special discount through David Paul’s ETJ Book Service.

You’ll find an abundance of support materials for this series in our online store, Donald’s English Classroom.  Visit for downloadable flashcards, charts, games, and activities.

A to Z Kinney Brothers Publishing
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  • Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon)
  • Nellies English Books (Japan)
  • ETJ Book Service (Japan)
  • Donald’s English Classroom (pdf color and black & white)
  • Donald’s English Classroom support materials
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  • Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon)
  • Nellies English Books (Japan)
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  • Donald’s English Classroom (pdf color and black & white)
  • Donald’s English Classroom support materials
Phonics & Spelling, Book 2 Kinney Brothers Publishing
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  • Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon)
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Phonics & Spelling, Book 3 Kinney Brothers Publishing
  • Preview Download
  • Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon)
  • Nellies English Books (Japan)
  • ETJ Book Service (Japan)
  • Donald’s English Classroom (pdf color and black & white)
  • Donald’s English Classroom support materials
  • Preview Download
  • Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon)
  • Nellies English Books (Japan)
  • ETJ Book Service (Japan)
  • Donald’s English Classroom (pdf color and black & white)
  • Donald’s English Classroom support materials

Kinney Brothers Publishing offers a wide range of textbooks including a Communication Series for upper elementary through high school language learners, an Easy Sight Words Series, and Trends for adult English language learners. If you’re looking for more support materials, be sure to check out Q&A, Cursive Writing!, and a treasure trove of games, charts, and flashcards in Donald’s English Classroom!

Filed Under: Kinney Brothers Publishing Tagged With: ABC and phonics, ABCs, Donald's English Classroom, ESL Activities, ESL Flashcards, ESL Games, esl textbooks, ESL Worksheets, kids writing practice, kinney brothers publishing, phonics and spelling

Communication Series – A Closer Look

01/17/2021 by admin

The Kinney Brothers Publishing Communication Series is designed to extend students’ skills and interest in communicating in English. The four-book series includes Stories For Young Readers and Dialogues For Young Speakers. The textbooks work in tandem to provide students with exercises in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Each textbook is detailed below with links for downloadable previews and purchase.

In Japan, The Stories For Young Readers series is published by Independent Publishers International (I.P.I.) and available through Nellies English Books and David Paul’s ETJ Book Service.

You’ll find an abundance of support materials for this series in our online store, Donald’s English Classroom.  Visit for downloadable audio files, Lesson Packs, and Teacher’s Answer Keys. You’ll also see links for Lesson Packs on Google Slides for online courses and Kindle Books for your digital library.

  • Preview Download
  • Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon)
  • Nellies English Books (Japan)
  • ETJ Book Service (Japan)
  • Donald’s English Classroom (pdf color and black & white)
  • Donald’s English Classroom (support materials)
  • Donald’s English Classroom Lesson Packs (pdf downloads) Free Sample
  • Donald’s English Classroom Lesson Packs (Google Slides) Free Sample
  • Kindle Books (Amazon)
  • Preview Download
  • Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon)
  • Nellies English Books (Japan)
  • ETJ Book Service (Japan)
  • Donald’s English Classroom (pdf color and black & white)
  • Donald’s English Classroom (support materials)
  • Donald’s English Classroom Lesson Packs (pdf Downloads) Free Sample
  • Donald’s English Classroom Lesson Packs (Google Slides) Free Sample
  • Kindle Books (Amazon)
  • Preview Download
  • Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon)
  • Donald’s English Classroom (pdf color and black & white)
  • Donald’s English Classroom Lesson Packs (pdf Downloads) Free Sample
  • Donald’s English Classroom Lesson Packs (Google Slides) Free Sample
  • Kindle Books (Amazon)
  • Preview Download
  • Kinney Brothers Publishing (Amazon)
  • Donald’s English Classroom (pdf color and black & white)
  • Donald’s English Classroom Lesson Packs (pdf Downloads) Free Sample
  • Donald’s English Classroom Lesson Packs (Google Slides) Free Sample
  • Kindle Books (Amazon)

Kinney Brothers Publishing offers a wide range of ESL textbooks including a Phonics Series that begins with your youngest students, an Easy Sight Words Series, and Trends for secondary and adult English language learners. If you’re looking for more support materials, be sure to check out Q&A, Cursive Writing!, and a treasure trove of games, charts, and flashcards in Donald’s English Classroom!

Filed Under: Kinney Brothers Publishing Tagged With: Dialogues For Young Speakers, Donald's English Classroom, ESL Activities, ESL Dialogues, ESL Flashcards, ESL Games, esl textbooks, ESL Worksheets, kids writing practice, kinney brothers publishing, Stories For Young Readers

Christmas Puzzles

12/09/2020 by admin

Kinney Brothers Publishing Christmas Puzzles

It’s the time of year to start planning for Christmas parties! Like Halloween parties, I’m tasked with organizing a series of activities that are easy to set up and repeat over multiple days for dozens of classes ranging in age from wee little ones through junior high students.

Many games I use in class are for introducing and reviewing vocabulary. Once a year I have a window of opportunity to introduce or repeat holiday vocabulary that I otherwise never get the chance to use during the rest of the school year. Over time, and with repetition, my students pick up Halloween words like mummy and jack-o-lantern and Christmas words like elf and wreath.

Many of the paper activities I use have been created over many years and recycled as my kids grow up and move on. I’ve also used these puzzles in my adult classes as a quick warm-up during the holiday season.

You can download a free collection of paper puzzles to play in your own classes. Merry Christmas! These activities are great for introducing holiday vocabulary before parties, as a cool-down activity during parties, or a last-chance review after the holidays. Hopefully, they will spark some ideas for creating your own puzzles! They include answer keys and word banks.

Kinney Brothers Publishing Christmas games

https://www.kinneybrothers.com/DOWNLOADS/CHRISTMAS_PUZZLES.pdf

If you’re looking for more Christmas cheer, check out these Bingo, Tic-Tac-Toe, and (free) Pairs activities from my online store! Whether you’re playing in class or online, these games are easy enough to play with your youngest students. Christmas I Have/Who Has is only available as a bonus in the Christmas Game Bundle!

Donald's English Classroom Christmas games

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2021!

Donald Kinney
Kinney Brothers Publishing

Filed Under: Kinney Brothers Publishing Tagged With: christmas, christmas bingo, christmas puzzles, Donald's English Classroom, english language learning, esl, ESL Activities, ESL Games, esl textbooks, ESL Worksheets, flashcard activities, flashcard games, kinney brothers publishing

Fun Facts About English #77 – The History of Headlines

10/30/2020 by admin

Kinney Brothers Publishing Fun Facts About English Headlines

“The headline screamed at him as soon as he saw the paper. He almost screamed back.”
― Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

The familiar large-type, front-page headline didn’t come into use until the later 19th century as increased competition among newspapers led to the need for attention-grabbing headlines. This practice has successfully carried over from print news to online news with “screaming” headlines urging you to click through and read more.

Click on the image to see larger.

Headlines Kinney Brothers Publishing

Some of the most famous, creative, and notorious headlines take us back in history, provide a window into the state of the culture, and can even shape our collective response. Though the idea of a creative guy with his feet on a desk being paid to brainstorm snappy headlines works well in the movies, the reality of the business is staider with a hierarchy of accountability.

The headline is often the duty of copy editors. Writers may suggest a headline, but beyond word count, they may know little about the space in the paper and how the story will appear. A section editor or editor-in-chief may overrule the copy editor before the layout becomes final. Collectively, their efforts don’t go unrecognized – or ridiculed if bold errors are made. In the United States, headline contests are sponsored by the American Copy Editors Society and the National Federation of Press Women.

Because a physical newspaper’s above-the-fold, front-page real estate is the most valuable, newspapers developed a set of grammatical rules for an abbreviated or compressed telegraphic style known as headlinese. The syntactic conventions include:

  • “Be” verbs and articles (a, an, the) are usually omitted.
  • Most verbs are in the simple present tense.
  • The conjunction and is often replaced by a comma.
  • Surnames are used with no honorifics.
  • Organizations and institutions are indicated by metonymy: Wall Street, White House, California, etc.
  • Abbreviations, contractions, and acronyms are used wherever possible.
  • No periods are used even if the headline forms a complete sentence.

Word choice and word alternatives are also of paramount importance for saving space. This forces editors to be painfully blunt or wildly idiosyncratic in their creative effort to relay as much information in the shortest space possible.

Alternative word choices include:

  • axe (eliminate)
  • bid (attempt)
  • blast (heavily criticize)
  • hike (increase)
  • ink (sign a contract)
  • mull (contemplate)
  • nab (grab)
  • nix (reject)
  • pen (write)
  • slam (heavily criticize)
  • tout (promote)

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Kinney Brothers Publishing Famous Headlines

With this abbreviated writing style, the media has been criticized for their overuse of words such as slam, blast, rip, and bash, drawing comparisons to professional wrestling matches rather than sober journalism. This over-reliance on the promise of a titillating or conflict-laden narrative gave rise to the 21st-century internet term clickbait.

FYI: The term clickbait was invented by Jay Geiger in a blog post written in December of 2006.

Headlinese can also go awry. When a headline delivers a message that is unintended or is so ambiguous as to have multiple interpretations, it’s known as Crash Blossoms. The term comes from a 2009 Japan Times news article with the headline, “Violinist Linked to JAL Crash Blossoms.” The article was later re-titled, “Violinist shirks off her tragic image.”

Kinney Brothers Publishing Famous Headlines 2

Another example of Crash Blossoms is The Times 2019 headline “Hospitals named after sandwiches kill five.” Normally, readers have come to expect the word named to mean “blamed” or “held accountable.” In this case, the headline can be humorously interpreted to mean “Hospitals named after sandwiches, kill five.”

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a few knee-slapping headlines from companies that scrape the bottom of the yellow journalists’ barrel. When doing research for this post, the internet offered no end of historical tabloid headlines so outrageous, you’d have to be an idiot or member of some online cult to actually believe them. Unfortunately, there are numerous faux “news” companies more than willing to take advantage of gullible people.

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Kinney Brothers Publishing Outrageous Headlines

You might also be interested in learning why acronyms are so popular, what the X in LAX actually means, or the reason Pikes Peak is spelled without an apostrophe by law!

See the previous or next Fun Facts About English.

Donald's English Classroom

Stories For Young Readers Lesson Packs, from Kinney Brothers Publishing, are complete downloadable lessons with stories, dialogues, grammar exercises, puzzles, answer keys, and audio files! Click here to learn more!

Filed Under: Fun Facts About English Tagged With: Donald's English Classroom, esl, ESL Activities, ESL Flash cards, ESL Games, fun facts about english, headline, headlinese, kinney brothers publishing, news headline

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